Girls Night Out

I am only 2 weeks late telling you about The Shady Ladies' trip into Town. It was a special occasion, Dr Do-Lots was 40 over the weekend and this was a great excuse for the girls to go out

Mr Bonfire has access to the Community Minibus so we were chauffeured into town in glorious style. I think there were 9 of us (2 weeks is a long time.....that'll teach me!) and we went straight to An Lanntair (the Arts Centre) where the cinema is. When I first came to Lewis the only way to see a film was in a mobile cinema, in the back of a truck which visited the Island about once a fortnight (ferry permitting). Now Stornoway has a beautiful Arts Centre, with gift shop, gallery, coffee shop, bar, restaurant......and cinema. N tells me (and he seems to know far more about this place than I do - and far more people!) that the walls and the stage all move around so the space is completely versatile and can be used for many different events

We watched "The Changling" which was quite grim, but an excellent film. A great feature of "Cinema Stornoway Style", is that you can buy a glass of wine at the bar and take it in to the film with you - fantastic - popcorn and wine! So, by the end of the film, we had each had 2 rather large glasses of wine. I must admit, I thought that would be the end of the evening.....but oh no...we had to visit the pubs too. I have not been into a pub in Stornoway for about 15 years, and to be fair, I think very little had changed (including the carpet). There were a healthy number of drinkers in each place we went, and a few VERY drunk men, but the atmosphere was friendly.

At midnight we sang "Happy Birthday" - and half the 20 year old men in town joined in, obviously believing our party to be of the same generation as them. Amazing what wine can do! Not long after this I remembered I have a son and he was with Mr Welsh Idea back in Grimshader. I fully expected him to be sound asleep when we got back, and to leave him where he was until morning. In fact, when we staggered back to Dr Do-Lots house, there was N with Welsh, wide awake and discussing the merits of the various King Kong films which had been watched during the evening. I think Welsh was closer to sleep than his 8 year old companion!

So a lovely evening, but not such a nice fuzzy head the following morning. But it was worth it. I would like to point out that any reference to naked dancing on tables from Rusty is just a sad example of her hankering after her past. She needs to move on and accept she is now a responsible member of the Grimshader community - honestly, as if we would.....!